Young maid found hanged in Karachi’s DHA

KARACHI: A teenage girl was found hanged inside a home in Defence Housing Authority on Saturday, officials said.

They added that Fatima, 17, daughter of Abdul Haq, was found hanged inside the bungalow located on Khayaban-i-Badban, Phase-V.

Clifton SSP Dr Asad Malhi told Dawn that the victim had been working as a maid at the home.

She was living on the first floor of the house while the employer couple was residing on the ground floor.

She did not turn up in the morning as per her daily routine and when the couple went upstairs, they found her hanging from a ceiling fan. She had been working there as a house servant for the last two years or so.

The corpse was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination.

Dr Malhi said it appeared to be a suicide case. However, the Clifton SSP added that the police were investigating the case from different angles.

Gizri police station officer Abdul Latif, in whose jurisdiction the incident took place, said the deceased’s father, Abdul Haq, in his statement before the police said that his daughter had been working at the home for the last two years and she never complained of the employers’ attitude.

Mr Latif added that the father in his statement also did not level any allegations against the employers.

The house owner, Syed Hasan Mazhar, in his statement said that usually the housemaid woke up at around 11.30am. He said they had installed a bell on the first floor of the house to wake her up.

Mr Mazhar in his statement said that he was getting late for his job, therefore he left home in his car and travelled a short distance when he received a phone call from his wife, stating that she went upstairs and found the maid hanging from the ceiling fan.

He said he returned home, informed the police about the incident and shifted the body to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination to ascertain the exact cause of death.

The JPMC’s lady medico-legal officer in her initial report termed it a suicide case as apparently there were no injury marks on her body, said the Gizri police officer.

However, the doctor reserved the cause of her death for histopathological and chemical examiner’s report.

Woman murdered

A young woman was murdered allegedly by the first wife of her husband in Sikanderabad, police said on Saturday.

Jackson SHO Shaoor Khan said that the incident took place late on Friday night and the suspect was also arrested.

He said that Fatima, 17, was asleep inside her house when Shahnaz, 27, stabbed her to death with a knife.

The incident was witnessed by the suspect’s six-year-old daughter, he added.

Later, she made phone contact with her husband, Mohammed Juman, informing him that she was leaving home.